There are thousands of languages for communication that exist today that have handwritten words, as well as spoken words. Some of these languages, such as English, are written in a left-to-right format. This means that the writer will hand write the desired words in a direction that is from left-to-right. Other languages, such as Hebrew and Arabic, are written in a right-to-left format. This means that the writer will write the desired words in a direction that is from right-to-left. The words in a right-to-left language are thus formed and written in an opposite direction than the words in a left-to-write language, and vice versa. Some languages, such as modern Hebrew, mix right-to-left words with left-to-right numbers.
In the world of pen-based computing, there are numerous computers that can be purchased with pen input capabilities, such as tablet PC's, personal digital assistants, and other similar devices. Handwriting recognizers are included on these pen-based computers to allow a user to input text in a handwritten format for recognition by the computer. A problem with current handwriting recognizers is that they have in general been designed to work in one particular direction, such as left-to-right or right-to-left. This means that a user who is multi-lingual or otherwise wishes to write a combination of mixed text in a left-to-right format along with a right-to-left format is unable to do so.